Thursday, 14 February 2008

Changing Gozo for the better

It is my pleasure to note that now the Prim Minister of Malta and leader of the PN acknowledgesfurther AD's coaltion proposals for sustainable jobs in Gozo and he retaliated AD's proposal to turn Gozo into an eco-island.

If Alternattiva Demokratika were to form part of a coalition government, it would strive to turn Gozo into an ecological island and support this "through new and bright types of professions".

This is just one of over 100 proposals for Gozo listed in a 29-page document, entitled Changing Gozo For the Better, presented by the Green Party in Gozo yesterday.

The document includes proposals for creating new, modern and sustainable jobs in Gozo by ensuring its participation in international fairs, subsidising travel costs for Maltese residents during shoulder months so as to increase inland tourism, promoting Gozo as a holiday base through low-cost travel, offering tax incentives for job creation and offering financial assistance to the private sector to develop niche tourism projects, among other initiatives.

Another set of proposals aims at bringing about reform in the Gozo Ministry and in public administration for a fully democratic. These include the setting up of an inclusive Parliamentary Committee for Gozo Affairs, made up of all Gozo's MPs, and eliminating all the "prevalent stagnant clientelist nepotism".

The document includes proposals for a better quality education for all Gozitans to succeed and another set of proposals targeted at the radical reform in public transport in Gozo which, AD believed, had been neglected for many years.

Most of the proposals were aimed at the creation of new, modern and sustainable jobs in Gozo. The proposals also included measures to transform the controversies over Ta' Ċenċ, Ramla l-Ħamra and Ħondoq ir-Rummien into job opportunities without damaging the natural environment, patrimony and unique ecology.

It is being proposed that Ħondoq ir-Rummien be transformed into a geological and industrial park complemented with an afforestation project and guaranteeing free public access to the bay, Ta' Ċenċ would be expropriated and "given to the nation" and, in the case of Ramla l-Ħamra, the state should claim back the land from the Ulysses Lodge proprietors, remove the abandoned building, restore the partially concreted-over Roman pathway to its former self and holistically restore the whole area.

All these proposals are a guarantee that, through the election of the AD candidate, Gozo will be on the country's political agenda permanently. Gozo is ripe for a reform, which will propel it from an abandoned periphery of Malta to its most successful region. This will happen through the election of an MP for AD, a party characterised by long-term, consistent commitment to the benefit of Gozo and to the welfare of Gozitans.